April 16: Dandiya Raas and Garba

Colored Pencils Celebrates with EcoTrust

from press release

Kick off Western New Year 2010 or shoo away Tiger Year 4707 at Colored Pencils Art & Culture Night.

In a Pacific gateway city like ours, settled on the confluence of two majestic river systems and whole lot of intercultural history – both kinds of parties are necessary. Date: January 28, 2011. Tickets are $15 including food and non-alcoholic beverage and are available at eventbrite.com or at the door. Hosted by Ecotrust at
721 NW 9th Avenue, Portland 97209. Colored Pencils is Portland's multicultural family room.

Some background: Colored Pencils is a Last Friday celebration led by traditional and contemporary painters and poets; presented by acclaimed as well as emerging musicians; and delivered by our city’s grandest elders, our tiniest dancers, and everyone of all ages, abilities, and orientations in between. Colored Pencils is a world of cuisine, lots of laughter, even unexpected tears. At bottom, we are a vision of a New Portland, an ethos and aesthetic generously drawn from our city’s newcomer and settled communities’ enormous joint bank account of social, cultural, and spiritual capital.

For 2 years running, Colored Pencils has been a community-building process and a monthly production, a demonstration of what a Bigger Us would taste, look, sound and sway like. Our monthly all-volunteer events ($132,000 in-kind) have been celebrated by nearly 2700 firmly established and just-arrived Portlanders.

Colored Pencils’ culinary, fine, and performing artists are from City River and from all points south and east – from Mexico, Central, and South America; from Western and Eastern Europe; from Africa and Arabia, from Asia and a string of island nations stretching across our deep blue Pacific right up to she blends with our rich and silty River Columbia.

Ecotrust’s Colored Pencils: 2011’s very first Last Friday, also the final Friday before beginning Rabbit Year 4708, warms up at 6pm with Bangkok cuisine and a reception for Colored Pencils artists. Performing arts begin, as always, at 7pm with a Northwest tribal invocation, a petition for blessing our evening together. Colored Pencils events are playful. Dance along in folk Iraqi, with urban salsa, or in bold Bollywood, if you dare. Or just clack along with the beat with Dhanya sticks (representing Hindu Lord Durga’s swords chasing away some very bad demons). If January 28 is your birthday or wedding anniversary or if you’re our event’s eldest elder, be ready to say so.

To learn more, check out the Colored Pencils website

Colored Pencils Co-Hosts Art Show with Resolutions Northwest

Resolutions Northwest’s 25th Anniversary Celebration for 2010 with The Art of Reconciliation and Colored Pencils

Join the movement! Join the fun! The weekend of November 20-21, 2010 will feature an intercultural art exhibit plus story telling, song and dance from Portland's newest groups from around the world. Colored Pencils will be sponsoring this part of the weekend during the afternoon of November 20, at St. David Wales Episcopal Church, 2800 SE Harrison, in Portland.

Call For Artists

You are invited to create new artwork for this juried art exhibit. Use your art to give homage to healing traditions in your country of origin, reconciliation within family and relationships, or as expressed in society at large. Consider how your artistic expression might encourage all of us to treat one another and our home, the earth, with respect and gentleness.

Learn more, visit the Colored Pencils website

Sept. 30: Reception for Native Arts and Cultures Foundation

Read the Colors of Influence interview with T. Lulani Arquette, President and CEO of Native Arts and Culture Foundation.

Colored Pencils Celebrates Mid County Clinic's Multicultural Art Wall

For the first time in Portland, artwork by 15 artists representing a variety of Portland’s ethnic communities will become a permanent exhibition at Multnomah County Health Department’s Mid County Health Center. The Mid County Health Center is the only community clinic that provides refugee health screening services.

Artist Kwa Franklin’s painting of his family life in Cameroon will be displayed along with Shu-Ju Wang’s exquisite painting inspired by Asian philosophy. Also featured is a drawing by Portland’s Mexican muralist Hector Hernandez and Palestinian artist and PSU art educator Kanaan M’s spiritual encaustic. Other art on display will include an Iraqi watercolor and work by newly arrived refugees from the country of Karen. Pieces representing a variety of other cultural groups will be displayed throughout the building.

The artists’ reception will be held on Friday, August 27 at Mid County Health Center, 12710 SE Division St. Portland, Oregon 97236-3134 from 6:30 pm to 9:00 pm. The public is invited to help celebrate Multicultural Art Wall, meet the artists, taste gourmet appetizers by the Bhutanese community and enjoy music performances by New Portland Colored Pencils musicians.

Colored Pencils Art Collective is an all volunteer and non-profit organization that promotes PEACE and understanding among diverse communities. Visit www.coloredpencilsart.com or contact us for more information at newportland@coloredpencilsart.com

Dance to the music of India!

FACE will hold its first annual benefit event with a Dandiya Raas and Garba, a folk dancing tradition of western India: a fun evening as you use wooden sticks in this energetic folk dance. Free lessons will be provided to everyone.

The event will be held 7-10:30pm on Saturday, May 29, at Stoller Middle School, 14141 NW Laidlaw in Portland. Admission is $5 (free admission for kids 8 and under.)

Inspired by the tragic murder/suicide of the Suthar family, the Family and Community Empowerment (FACE) program is dedicated to encouraging mutual support among families in the community and empowering individuals and families who are in transition by providing educational, economic and culturally relevant services and resources, including:

• Provide acculturation services
• Create a community-wide electronic networking site, including links to resources
• Provide business and career assistance and resources
• Provide emergency funds for shelter, food and utilities
• Increase awareness of and response to domestic violence through dialogue and education

For more information, call 503.481.0813 or visit http://www.facepdx.org

Corvallis NAACP Branch Hosts Regional Conference

from press release

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Alaska-Oregon-Washington State Area Conference (AOWSAC) is holding its annual Spring Convention from Friday, March 26 to Sunday, March 28, 2010 at the Salbasgeon Suites Hotel & Conference Center, 1730 NW 9th Street, Corvallis, Oregon.

The theme for this year's spring convention, hosted by the Corvallis NAACP, is “Learning From The Past, Teaching For The Future.”

On Friday evening March 26, the Convention will host an Oregon Northwest Black Pioneers Exhibit/Reception for attendees and the general public; keeping with the theme, “Learning From The Past, Teaching For The Future.”

Saturday workshops include

• “Volunteer Recruitment, Retention and Relationship Building,” 10 to 11:30am.Facilitated by Mr. Gregory Akili, NAACP Senior Manager of Field Training & Field Organizing, Region 1.
• "In Pursuit of Excellence In Education," 1:30 to 3pm. Facilitated by Dr. Ellsworth James, President, Anchorage Branch NAACP; noted in the fields of Cultural Genetics, Transgenetic Adaptive Behavior, Traditional Grief and Intergenerational Trauma.
• “Taking Control of Your Finances," 3pm to 4:30pm, will be facilitated by Ms. Angela Harris of the Harris Group, San Diego, CA, speaking on specific financial topics to include “Budgeting your finances in a down economy.”

The luncheon, from noon to 1:30pm, on Saturday, March 27, will feature a panel discussion “Evidence Based, Value Based Health Care”, facilitated by Ms. Gwendolyn Shepherd, Chairperson of AOWSAC Health Committee. This panel of experts, from the Oregon area, will cover diverse health information topics that affect the daily lives of average income Americans; availability of Public Health Care Resources, Government Assistance Programs, the importance of Community Practice Engagement and the other valuable community health issues.

Dr. Tammy Bray, Dean of OSU’s College of Health and Human Sciences, is the featured speaker at the banquet, scheduled for 7pm on March 27, at 7 P.M. is Dr. Bray grew up in Taipei, Taiwan and received her BS degree from Fu-Jen University, her MS degree in nutrition and PhD degree in Nutrition and Biochemistry, both from Washington State University. Dr.Bray held positions at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, and was named chair of the Department of Human Nutrition and Food Management at The Ohio State University. Additional posts there included Associate Dean for Research and International Studies of the College of Human Ecology and Director of the Ohio Bionutrition Research Initiative.


According to Oscar Eason, Jr., AOWSAC Presiddent, the state-area Conference is comprised of 20 NAACP adult, youth and college Units from Fairbanks, Alaska to Eugene, Oregon.

"It was over 100 years ago in 1909 that a multiracial group of progressive thinkers formed and established an organization with the objective of insuring the political, educational, social and economic equality of minority groups and our mission has not changed. We are continuing the goals of eliminating racial prejudice and removing all barriers of racial discrimination through the democratic processes,” he said.

Peter Leung, President of the Corvallis Branch said: “Our Branch has worked, and will continue to work, with all organizations in the area with similar goals to make Corvallis one of the best municipalities in the State for people regardless of their race, creed, color or national origin. Prime example of current community engagement is: proposing partnership with Oregon Youth Authority to promote Benjamin Hook Scholarship Endowment Fund which our Branch has established together with OSU Foundation and the Oregon Department of Corrections."

"As an Asian American I am especially concerned about the treatment of minorities in America. Democracy is the best form of government on the face of the earth and the NAACP has a history of working for true democracy,” he said.

On Sunday, March 28, events will include church services and the continuation of AOWSAC’s business meeting. Convention events are planned to address present issues/concerns of both NAACP membership and the general population as well.

The opening reception and workshops are free and open to the public. The Saturday lunch panel discussion and banquet require payment. For more information, contact Paulette Synegal-Law, Chair, AOWSAC Communications, Press and Publicity Committee at 907-301-6300.